Care Across America
"Care Across America, an Approved Senior Network® Podcast"—your go-to source for engaging conversations and practical insights from home care and senior care experts across the United States. Each episode will spotlight industry professionals, and their referral networks, sharing impactful stories, proven strategies, and innovative solutions in senior care. This podcast is perfect for professionals, adult children of aging parents, and family members struggling with senior care choices and care.
Care Across America
Making Care Happen: Insights from a Home Care Scheduling Director
Ever wonder who's behind the scenes making sure your loved ones receive consistent, quality care at home? Meet Heather Savoie, Director of Scheduling for AmanaCare's North Platte office, who pulls back the curtain on one of home care's most challenging roles.
After transitioning from care coordinator to scheduling director, Heather now orchestrates the complex dance of matching caregivers with clients throughout Nebraska. She paints a vivid picture of her daily responsibilities: coordinating care schedules, ensuring EVV accuracy, and maintaining direct communication with both caregivers and clients. But beyond the logistics, Heather's role is deeply human – she's the person who "takes that stress and worry away" from families concerned about care consistency.
What makes this conversation particularly fascinating is Heather's perspective on rural healthcare dynamics. Having worked in the field for over 20 years, she highlights how small-town connections create an informal accountability network where "the whole community tends to rally around" care recipients. When caregivers assist people connected to the community fabric, care quality naturally rises because "nobody wants to let Aunt Susie down." This unique aspect of rural care delivery creates a personalized experience that larger urban settings might miss.
The interview also explores the puzzle-like complexity of home care scheduling – balancing clients who need multiple daily visits with caregivers who need time off, all while matching personalities and capabilities. It's a testament to the unsung heroes who work behind the scenes ensuring vulnerable community members receive consistent, high-quality care. Curious to learn more about how home care works in your community? Reach out to AmanaCare to discover the difference that thoughtful scheduling and personalized care can make for you or your loved ones.
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I am Heather Savoy. I am the Director of Scheduling for AmanaCare. I work out of the North Platte area office.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Tell us about your role at AmanaCare and what you do on a regular basis and how you work with clients and caregivers. I've been with AmanaCare and what you do on a regular basis and how you work with clients and caregivers.
Speaker 1:I've been with AmanaCare for about a year and a half, a little over. I started as a care coordinator. As the care coordinator, I worked with the clients and the caregivers on a one-to-one basis on a regular, every day, helping to support and set up for cares and matching clients and caregivers' personalities and needs and availabilities together. And then, as the director of scheduling, now I do all of the schedules for the North Platte area as well, as I hold meetings with the schedulers with the other areas and make sure that we are maintaining accuracy in our scheduling and EVV and make sure that we are maintaining accuracy in our scheduling and EVV. And then I still work one-on-one with all of the caregivers and the clients. They all talk to me and call me still. They give me, make sure I have any appointments or anything that they need throughout the day so that I can make sure that they have a caregiver provided for them.
Speaker 2:You're the person that makes life easy for the family and you take away that stress and worry that that. Am I going to have a caregiver today? Am I going to so as a family caregiver in the past? It's, it's a challenge and it's a worry. Am I going to have caregivers today? It shouldn't be, but it sounds like to me. You're the person that takes that stress and worry away.
Speaker 1:You're the person that takes that stress and worry away. Yes, I'm here to facilitate the caregiver and client match and make sure that the caregiver's not only available for the hours that the client needs, but that their personalities and their abilities match what the client needs and wants out of out of the relationship.
Speaker 2:Out of the relationship, because I think some clients obviously need a lot more care, or they need a lot more assistance perhaps, or everybody's different. Some need medication reminders, some don't, some need help getting to appointments, some don't. So I can imagine that you have a whole puzzle full of different things and you put all the pieces together for everybody.
Speaker 2:Yes, ma'am of different things and you put all the pieces together for everybody. Yes, ma'am, so tell us a little bit about the North Platte office. Now. I know Imonicare has several offices across Nebraska. Are you originally from the North Platte area?
Speaker 1:No, actually I'm originally from North Carolina, but I've been in North Platte for about three years now and I have been in healthcare for over 20 years now. In some facet or another I've enjoyed giving back to the community and to the people. I like creating those relationships and those bonds and helping people reach their goals and succeeding in whatever that is, even if it's every day I want to get out of bed. That's a goal and I want to help you reach that goal. I enjoy doing those types of things. We do have offices across the state. We have Omaha and Lincoln, kearney, north Platte, scotts Bluff and, soon to be, a Grand Island office.
Speaker 2:That's great, yeah, absolutely. I know that all the communities in Nebraska are very much tight knit and, coming from a small town, everybody knows each other, or aunt who takes care, or this person who takes care of aunt. So everybody knows each other and I know that. You've been there for a few years. You're aware of you, know how community oriented a small town really is.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I've always told folks I come from a big, small town, st Louis, missouri, so it's a big city, but we're all kind of small town here and I always tell folks, if you go out into a more rural area you will find the. I find the care is better because or maybe not better, but it's different because everybody's taking care of someone's loved one that they know Um more often than not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they know aunt Susie or aunt Mary or grandma Joan or whatever. So they've either met the person, heard about the person, met them in passing along the way, and that helps when a community is close knit and you start recognizing last names and you start understanding that. That makes the care, I think, incredibly good, because nobody wants to let Aunt Susie down. They have the best life she can have.
Speaker 1:So it's more of a when you're in a small community, in a small town and everyone knows everyone. You don't just have the company that you work for watching to make sure that you are providing or that the client is getting what they need, because the whole community tends to rally around that person that needs something. They make donations, they know their neighbors, they watch and they know that every Monday from 8 am to 5 pm, susie is supposed to be with this person and Susie hasn't arrived. They're going to go check on them and make sure that they tend to hold you more accountable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yes, the neighbors do know what's going on and that's great. That is the benefit of living in a smaller community where everybody knows your name, because you know and like here. I always tell my girls do not end up on our town's Facebook page for a bad reason.
Speaker 1:Do not.
Speaker 2:They've accomplished that. They're 18 now, and they never ended up on there for a bad reason. So it's like that, though Everybody talks right. So to me that just makes the care more personal. It makes it more important and more just customized to the person who is needing the care.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And what you do as a scheduler is not an easy job.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:It's a tough job.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of puzzle pieces put together. You may have a client that needs cares four different times throughout the day and only gets so many hours a week, that needs those cares seven days a week, and I don't know any caregivers that needs those cares seven days a week. And I don't know any caregivers that want to work seven days a week. They all want a day or two off. So then you've got to finagle and figure it out where maybe this caregiver works. Monday through Friday, they only work the morning half of the shifts and then the afternoon shifts, or somebody else and weekends or somebody. You just have to figure it out. It works.
Speaker 2:I hope you have an amazing scheduling software because I can imagine that it gets. I don't know if I can keep up, so that's wonderful. I know all the people of North Platte are thankful and all the team members at Imonicare are thankful for you, so I just want to tell you that we appreciate what you do. Scheduling is one of the hardest jobs in home care by far and we need more people like you out there. So thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
